What is business blogging?

When the world of blogging got buzzing with activity, the interest it generated did not go unnoticed by profiteers.

Business Blogging, sometimes called B-Blogging, is a recent development, but it’s growing fast and you’ll see why.

Today blogging emphasizes being informational rather than promotional. Unlike mass marketing, blogging gives the organization a human face. In other words, marketing your business with blogs is as close as it gets to face-to-face marketing. And this is something that is seen as the biggest advantage of blogging…it’s a personal thing. Not some scary company talking, but a real guy or gal.

Hence, blogging for business is a strategic activity designed to promote the organization’s vision, provide an online brand, secure untouched markets, and establish the company as the leading voice in the industry… all by making the company seem more human, low-key, and accessible.

Small Businesses and B-Blogging

Small businesses have the opposite problem – they often want to seem bigger and less personal.

You will find that a large number of small business owners are partnering with business bloggers and search optimization firms, because of the potential rewards it holds for them.

It’s increasingly obvious that large numbers of eyeballs don’t matter to most online businesses – it’s the right eyeballs. The key is to get visitors who are actually interested in your products and services. Blogs do just this.

According to recent studies, around 10 % of small businesses have already incorporated blogging as part of their marketing approach. Further, another 16% plan to include blogging in their plans in the next two years! These are big numbers, and growing.

What’s the appeal?

You will find many instances where blogging can be useful for the small business community. A few segments, where blogging can be especially useful, are as follows:

1. Business Consultants: As a business consultant, you almost certainly need to maintain closely-knit contacts with the business and industry.

You also need to nurture these links with a lot of hard work and skill over long periods of time. Blogging can help business consultants keep in touch with wide spectrum of the business community, nurture further contacts and keep networked with other business consultants.

2. ‘Bread and Breakfast’ Businesses. Bread and Breakfast business depend to a great extent on seasonal traffic; hence keeping in touch with old clients is important to get repeat business from them. You can use blogging to stay in touch with these individuals through the year.

3. Specialist Retail Agencies: As a specialist retailer, you may have an edge over other retailers if into selling specialist products, say, mountaineering equipment or exclusive skiing equipment. Blogging can help you to interact with a niche clientele, by including news and posts about such specialist equipment and exclusive product updates.

4. Non Commercial and Not for Profit Agencies: If you are a non commercial agency spread over a large geographical area, you can include blogs to keep members informed about meetings, activities, and further developments.

5. Crisis situations: Blogs maintained in crisis situations help people keep in touch with the latest developments, rescue operations and can even provide information about missing or injured loved ones.

You will also find that encouraging customers to provide feedback is an excellent way of utilizing blogs. They help generating new ideas as well, as they are an excellent way of getting a customer’s message across to the company.